Hello and welcome to my blog!

I'm Maricel Cruz and I'm a wedding and portrait photographer based out of Chicago, Illinois. This is where I'll share my latest work and maybe a little bit about my life. I hope you enjoy reviewing my work.

My passion is photography first and food comes a VERY close second. Having an "eye" for photography certainly came to me by surprise when I borrowed my brother's camera to take photos of my niece and nephews at a pumpkin farm, which is when I decided to purchase my own camera. I found that I enjoyed photography more than I enjoyed eating my favorite foods... like I said, food is a very close second.

With the support of my amazing family and friends, my photography has evolved from what started out as an obsession to a passion that I am grateful to share with you. I believe my nieces and nephews think I am paparazzi, they seem to run from me when I have my camera in hand. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to feed them good food instead. :)

Category Archives: Engagements

Lyndee & Angus were introduced to me by my very good friends Heather & Mike. They are friends that met at their church Trinity Lutheran Church which is also where I met Lyndee & Angus for our wedding consultation. What a fun couple. Lyndee is from Houston, so she has a bit of a Texas...

Have you ever walked the Chicago Riverwalk? If you haven’t, it’s definitely something you should explore. Karla & John live off the river so they asked if we could take the Esession photos along the Riverwalk. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather if you ask me (cloudy and high 60′s, yes please). We started...

Blair & Shanti was a referral from an old co-worker of mine, Sharon, owner of Simple Perfect Peace Events. Thanks Sharon! After booking their August wedding, we scheduled their engagement session on a pretty chilly April day. They were brave enough to withstand the chilly lakefront wind, but I think it was certainly worth it!...

I love shooting engagement sessions. Most couples have never had professional photos taken, together. There is always a little awkwardness and I love seeing how it eventually goes away and love takes over. That’s pretty much how this session started. We went to North Park Village Nature Center for their session. We took a couple...